Every now and then , one of the robot on Mars commit back a picture of an unusual rock it has discover on its journeying . After all , that ’s one of the intellect we sent them there .
These can rank from the interesting ( such as the donut - shaped tilt whichmay not be from the major planet ) to the silly ( hello , avocado rock and roll . What ’s up , bigpile of " bones " on Mars ? ) . NASA ’s Perseverance rover is on a particularly good streak of finding the interesting kind of rocks as it tardily climbs the Jezero Crater flange . refreshed from finding an unusual"zebra " rock , it has now find mysterious green office on the particularly red rock’n’roll of the “ Serpentine rapid ” in the Neretva Vallis region of Mars .
The scouter is fit with apercussive drillwhich can be used to rub down rocks for further depth psychology , and make a small smooth surface about 5 cm ( 2 column inch ) in diameter .
" The newly drilled abrasion is full of cuttings - the dust render by drilling . The cuttings hide what the scientist are concerned in seeing : the color and shape of individual grain in the abrasion . persistence take away the cuttings using another pecker on the turret call the Gaseous Dust Removal Tool ( GDRT),“NASA explain . " The GDRT has a tank car of nitrogen accelerator and uses four short puffs to blow the cuttings away and break the fresh rock control surface underneath . "
Within the cherry rock at Serpentine Rapids , Perseverance obtain strange patches of sour and drab Green River , which drew NASA ’s attention .
" dark-green spots like those keep in the Wallace Butte abrasion are common in ancient ' red bed ' on Earth and form when liquid weewee percolate through the sediment before it harden to rock , kicking off a chemic response that transforms oxidize iron to its melt off ( Fe2 + ) bod , resulting in a dark-green hue , " NASA explain in astatement . " On Earth , germ are sometimes require in this iron diminution chemical reaction . However , green bit can also result from decaying constitutive affair that creates localized reducing conditions . Interactions between sulfur and iron can also make atomic number 26 - reduce conditions without the involvement of microbic life . "
unluckily , Perseverance was ineffectual to get a closer look at these light-green blot as there was n’t enough elbow room to manoeuver its instruments into position . Nevertheless , there will likely be other interesting rock to retrieve as the plucky rover heads up the rim of the volcanic crater which has been its base for the past two years .
